Traditional gym equipment for exercising, and available equipment for exercising the neck, legs, and gluteus maximus, in particular, takes up a large amount of floor space which can be very valuable in a gym environment. Gym space must be bought or leased and more space taken up by one piece of equipment limits the number of other pieces of equipment that may fit into the gym. The total amount of equipment available in turn limits the number of people that can comfortably workout at the same time and this can influence the optimal number of memberships sold. Equipment that takes up little floor space provides advantages of being able to fit more equipment into the gym so that more people can workout simultaneously and more memberships may be sold, increasing revenues for the fitness club.
Most gyms offer some form of group exercise classes which tend to be particularly popular to keep people motivated. New varieties of group exercise classes are continually emerging in an effort to keep exercise fun and interesting. Some types of group exercise classes provide some equipment with which the individual class members each work with independently while following a class instructor. For example, there are aerobic step classes in which each member has a step to work with and other strength training classes in which each member has a set of weights. For group classes incorporating some work with gym equipment, given the potentially large number of attendees or class members it is desirable to have reasonably priced equipment for class members to use that provides a myriad of exercise possibilities so that the class instructor can be creative and provide an effective workout.
Traditional gym machines for exercising the neck, legs, gluteus maximus, and other body parts are not ideal because they only workout the body part at limited angles with a limited range of motion. In many sports, especially contact sports like football, athletes may be subjected to force from any angle. Accordingly, exercise machines that only exercise the neck, legs, gluteus maximus, or other body part at limited angles do not adequately prepare and protect the athlete for the often unpredictable environment to which they are subjected on the playing field.
The cervical spine and muscles of the neck of the human body are extremely complex, such that the movement of the head with respect to the body requires an integrated movement of many muscles in coordination with the articulation of the cervical spine. As such, many people suffer from conditions resulting from improper orientation of the cervical spine, imbalance of the posterior cervical muscles and compression of the spine. These conditions may result from faulty or sustained postures, trauma, emotional stress and the like.
Indeed, many people exhibit a variety of discomforts caused by the misalignment of the cervical spine and imbalance of the associated muscles. For example, localized pain, headaches, decreased circulation and soreness, to name a few, decrease the quality of life of persons suffering from these conditions. These conditions have an associated cycle of pain and muscle contraction that leads to decreased function and potential soft tissue dysfunction.
The most common way to attempt to alleviate this pain is with medication. Another way to alleviate pain in this area is by strengthening and stretching the muscles in or around the head, neck, and shoulders. More specifically, the group of muscles targeted includes longissimus capitis, suboccipital, emispmalis capitis, longissimus cervicis and levator scapula. Free weights, dumbbells, and exercise/weight machines are known for building and training various muscles in the body. Despite the wide variety of exercise strengthening devices, neck muscle strengthening devices for strengthening the core muscles of the neck are not well known or widely used.
At some gyms the available floor equipment for exercising the legs and gluteus maximus is crowded and quickly filled. It is counterproductive to the goal of staying in motion to stand around waiting for desired equipment to become available.
It would be desirable to provide an apparatus for exercising the legs and gluteus maximus that an exerciser can use in an open space, empty studio, or at home, instead of waiting for gym floor equipment to become available, and that provides a greater number of possibilities for exercising the muscles from new angles to keep muscles continually challenged.
It would be desirable to provide an easy to use apparatus for strengthening and stretching the muscles of the head, neck, spine, shoulder, upper back, torso, legs, gluteus maximus, and others at any angle with variable resistance and variable size settings to accommodate a variety of users that takes up minimal space on a gym floor. It would also be desirable to provide a size-adjustable apparatus that takes up minimal floor space and can be interchangeably engaged with various sources of resistance for exercising a selected body part at any angle, including the chest, back, oblique side muscles, torso, abdominals, arms, legs, gluteus maximus, and any other body part. The present invention meets these and other needs.